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B"SDIn a store or online we choose items and put them in a basket and take them home.Imagine another process, where we take what is ours ,put it in a basket and dedicate an inner awareness of appreciation for what we have as opposed to what we want. We then can attain true levels of joy .Have a good one; H

Bustan, Merlot 2007: This was disappointing, nowhere as good as previous bottle. Aged for 22 months in oak barrels. Dark garnet with on the nose cherries, raspberries, cinnamon, toasted oak and some heat. Medium to full-bodied with sweet red cherries, red plums, raspberries, sweet spices such as cinnamon and vanilla, heavy notes of spicy toasted oak, heat was felt throughout the palate with ok acidity and soft tannins that rise on the long finish. Too much heat and sadly lacking complexity and balance, seemed tired. Drink now.

Shabbat lunch:

GHW, Yarden, Blanc de Blancs 2007: As great as always, fantastic wine.

Psagot, Prat N.V. : Much better than the previous times I tasted this wine, I assume this was from (a) different vintage(s), not too sweet with plenty of prunes, chocolate and almonds on both nose and palate. Not bad at all.

Friday night: 2010 Weinstock Select Cabernet Franc. Very nice. Enough to make one wonder how much return one gets on investing, say, at least another 50%, in the higher-end cab francs.

Shabbat lunch: At a friend's house. 2011 Capcanes Peraj Petita. Also very nice. I did not italicize the "very" since I know the wine already. The Weinstock CF was news.

A good week to all,

Isaac

PS Yes, Rosh Hashanah is early this year --- does it ever show up on time? It always seems be early or late. In case things get too hectic at the beginning of next week, I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a healthy and happy New Year, especially with peace for Israel --- שלום על ישראל.

2010 Ch. Parsac; not as tasty as the 2011, which is more fruit-forward, but nowhere near as bad as David thinks it is. A bit harsh but still pretty good fruit; might need another year or two to smoothen out.

The Teperberg Terra Malbec 2011 is a popular classic. It is a Best Value. Malbec is the most famous grape of South America, but it has grown in Israel since 1880. It has an almost full body found in a reserve, is filled with dark fruits, and has delicious yet gentle tannins. Nice.Galil Ela 2011 is a newcomer. It is an original blend of Syrah, Barbera, and Petite Verdot. Barbera is new from Italy, and Petite Verdot is new to blends other than Bordeaux. It is part of the new Mediterranean Blend category. Syrah is rich and spicy, Barbera is gentle, and Petite Verdot is dark and elegant.

Hi some are saying wines from Israel from. 2012 are good. Reminds of 2005. Anyhow you can see it with recanati GG saw it in galil mt cab. Some are saying tishbi shiraz '12. Myself it was gilgal cab 09. Cocoa. H

Friday Night, 2009 Galil Mountain Winery Merlot. medium body, low tannins, low acid, low oak, and berrylicious.2008 Golan Heights Winery Yarden Merlot, slightly jammy with some plum and toasted oak. Definitely can feel the muscle when tasting next to the galil.Sat lunch,2009 Herzog reserve Russian River Chardonnay. was good but the oak kept creeping in and stealing the show from the other flavors.

I guess this is my first time, literally in years posting to this whole forum at all. . . I've been hoping to get back to it for a while, and I thank you for reminding me to participate in our community

This past Shabbat I had completely successful rounds of all newly released wines (but not all of them first time tastings):For Shabbat dinner our Kiddush wine was the Derekh Eretz, Merlot, 2012, I think. It was medium-bodied, fresh strawberries on the palate, and a decent, lighter and relatively lower priced wine to have for the Kiddush. I was also very proud of this particular friend that he discovered the branch of Derekh HaYayin/Wine Route store in Modi'in which is pretty close to where we live in Giv'at Ze'ev (close to Jerusalem). After we then all starting the meal with the Motzi-breaking of bread, we immediately went into tasting the wines and making special additional, superior wine blessings on them - the HaTov veHaMeitiv blessing. I brought all of the wines that we tasted after the Kiddush for both dinner and late breakfast - 1) Tulip, Special Edition, 2012 (I think this is the first Special edition wine that the winery has made), this wine is majority Barbera and I forget what else in its blend, and is surprisingly closer to the full-bodied end and is simply, just lovely and a fascinating experience that I can't remember everything to describe it - pick up a bottle at Derekh HaYayin!; 2) Tabor, Adama II, CS-Petit Syrah 2010, it was surprisingly priced much lower than previous releases in the third out of the four series of Tabor wines (the first being the lowest level) at 69 NIS before a discount that I receive in Jerusalem, and with this wine coming after such a special start of the wine tasting of the Tulip bottle it was not enjoyed by friend and his family perhaps because the PS gave it a more dry and bitter sensation to the mouthfeel (both of the two, first red wines that I brought were first time tastings); 3) Recanati, Special Edition, White, 2012, this was the second, consecutive week that I bought this out of high recommendations from the veteran staff at the Derekh HaYayin flagship store in Tel Aviv on HaChasmonayim St., and it is a medium-oaked, upper-medium sophistication white blend. Most of the food that these wines complimented well were Persian-inspired, except for the first course which was salmon steaks which was the first time I've eaten salmon at this friend's house. . .

I arrived slightly later for the late breakfast right after they did Kiddush, so I blessed for myself on the same bottle of the Derekh Eretz Merlot that we blessed on at night. After we started the meal, I brought out another brand new, red wine to taste for the first time - the Dalton, Petite Syrah, 2011, which was not as successful as the previous release which was either the 2010 or the 2009 (whichever one was the last one I think DR rated like 89 or so), and was very dry and bitter on the mouthfeel, although it had a stunning deep, dark purple hue. I then brought out a red wine which was a huge success the previous Shabbat for dinner then - the newly released Galil Mountain, Ella, 2011.

The truth is is that this was the first Shabbat in a long time that I acquired for it this amount of all highly enjoyable wines, which they happened to be all very reasonably priced. I've been complaining for the past several weeks, at one of my favorite wine stores in Jerusalem, that I've been sick of "having to" get from week to week the same, exact wines (with very slight variation), and last week was right after the Jerusalem wine festival and few weeks before Rosh HaShanah so I was so happy to see that my favorite wine stores in Israel were finally getting quality, new wines at similar prices as before or in one case (Tabor, Adama II) lower prices than before.

2011 gvaot gofna pinot noir. I really enjoyed this pinot noir. I found it to be varietally true.I read good reviews on the 2009 and 2010. I wonder how this stacks up. Gas anyone tried this and previous vintages?Sam

I have had the 2010 and 2011 side by side and loved them both. GG has stated he really liked the 2009, but it is a wine I have not tried. The 2010 to me is a bit more richer, while the 2011 is a bit more oakier with more coffee. That said, both are lovely, but to me both are not for long holding. That said, I have a bet going and we will see who is correct - about the longevity of the 2010.

Midbar White 44 2010 - More of an intellectual attention grabber, than a hedonistic one. Like a chameleon changing colors, it keeps on adapting its flavor profile on the palate to the grape that dominates at any given moment, showing characteristics of Gewurtzraminer one moment, those of Viognier another, then displaying features of Sauvignon Blanc. The nose, on the other hand, exhibits a consistent floral pungency, that is pleasing and focused. The flavors on the palate are anything but focused. If the nose of the wine tells a Jane Austen creation, the palate speaks in the vein of a Virgina Woolf stream of consciousness. While the fact that I finished the bottle by myself might indicate that the wine tempted me to continually refill my glass, some of the credit goes to the difficulty of deciphering the sensation on the palate, and knowing that I want to enter a post, I kept on drinking, hoping to crack its code. I reached the bottom of the bottle without reaching to the bottom of its secret. The wine itself is a blend consisting of 25% Gewurztraminer, 20% each of Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay, and rounded out with 15% Semillon. Technically off dry, the wine contains, what I believe is, 1.5% residual sugar, perhaps a sufficient amount of residual sugar to offset the bitterness that plagues some Gewurztraminer wines, but not enough to give a sense of sweetness. The acidity level feels quite low, so that the wine does not radiate liveliness. All-in-all an interesting wine, but not one that is outstanding, nor substantially different than the 2009 vintage. In fact, I might have liked the 2009 a tad more. 13% AbV. B-/**/Y

Hagafen Reserve Pinot Noir California Soliel North Block 2005 - Decent cherry fruit on the palate. I'm still working through my stash of Hagafen Pinot, without any plans to restock. 13.5% AbV. C/*/N